An El Paso, Texas swim coach has been added to the U.S. Center for SafeSport disciplinary database while another individual affiliated with USA Swimming has been suspended.
Derek Fromson of Chevy Chase, Md., was added to the database in January 2022 facing allegations of misconduct and given temporary restrictions.
His case was updated on Wednesday, as Fromson has been suspended for six months by the U.S. Center for SafeSport and USA Swimming for violating the SafeSport Code of Conduct. The suspension will end on August 8, 2023. It is subject to appeal and not yet final.
The U.S. Center for Safesport lists three violations of the Code of Conduct:
- Violated NGB policies/bylaws
- Intimate Relationship – involving a Power Imbalance
- Intimate Relationship – involving a minor
Fromson’s membership with USA Swimming has been suspended by the U.S. Center for SafeSport until August 2023 for violating NGB policies/bylaws, the organization told SwimSwam.
Fromson was listed as a parent for the Bethesda Barracudas in Bethesda, Md., and was a USA Swimming member as a part-time coach as of January 2022.
Wright Stanton IV, the head coach of the Southwest Aquatic Team in El Paso, has been added to the database under “allegations of misconduct” and is facing temporary restrictions.
Stanton IV’s restrictions are the following:
- No Unsupervised Coaching
- Training, Travel
- Lodging Restriction(s), Contact
- Communication Limitation(s)
- No Contact Directive(s)
USA Swimming said that his membership with the organization has been temporarily suspended by SafeSport.
According to the Southwest Aquatic Team website, Stanton IV has been coaching in El Paso for the past 16 years, including 12 as the head coach at Loretto Academy. He has also spent time as the head coach at the Jewish Community Center, Tennis West, the El Paso Tennis Club, and as an assistant coach with the Fort Bliss Barracudas Swim Team in addition to his time at Southwest.
In 2022, he was awarded the James (Jimi) Raymond Flowers Coach of the Year Award by USA Swimming, which honors “coaches with outstanding inclusion of swimmers with a disability under the nominees’ direct coach assignment and/or promotion of swimmers with a disability and disability swimming within the nominee’s sphere of influence.”
Stanton IV was also named the 2016 El Paso girls’ high school swim coach of the year.
His father, Wright Stanton III, was inducted into the El Paso Athletics Hall of Fame last year.
The Center for SafeSport’s definition of “intimate relationship” is an emotional relationship outside of the sport relationship that is inappropriate. It can include a “romantic” or sexual component, but doesn’t have to. It can be a level of emotional interconnections that’s inappropriate, gift giving, etc. Grooming would typically fall under this, although it can also fall into different categories including violation of NGB policies (i.e., MAAPPs). If the investigation uncovers evidence of a sexual relationship, that’s usually considered sexual misconduct.
A six month suspension for this type of misconduct is absolutely too short.
Wait. A “parent” and coach gets a six month suspension for an intimate relationship with a minor? How is this appropriate?